Ask the Editorssarah james, editor of Slackjaw, Medium’s largest humor publication, joins us to share tips on how to make your readers laughArtwork by Jessica Jungton, inspired by Andrea Piacquadio Does humor have a formula? Is it something you just know or can you grow this skillset? Did your reader laugh — aka blow more air out their nostrils […]
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You’ve finished that debut manuscript — the one that will help your career as an author take off. But how do you convince a literary agent to represent you? As a senior vice president and senior literary agent at P.S. Literary Agency, I’ve had the opportunity to help launch the career of dozens of authors […]
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1. Ruffled my hair. It wasn’t that big a deal, but she was one of my close friends and that just… Wow. 2. At the school dance a friend who I had a crush on came over and sat on my lap, despite there being plenty of free chairs next to me, and just casually […]
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There are things we memorize on purpose—grammar rules, birthdays of loved ones, important dates, and deadlines. But there are things that get stuck with us even though we never really put any effort into remembering them. Words have far greater power than we may realize, especially when said at the right place and the right […]
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Bookable“I took all the guard rails off and let the language be what kids spoke and let the racism be what it was.”Photo courtesy of Bookable We are all products of our environment. Who we are, and who we become in the world, is shaped by the places we were raised. In Shawn Stewart Ruff’s debut novel […]
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When I was 11, a childhood friend convinced me and my brother to watch The Ring with her and her sister. I sat petrified throughout the whole movie, which I probably viewed through spread fingers, my small hands covering my face. It was perhaps the first experience I had with a clever payout for an […]
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We often use euphemisms to talk about subjects that are unpleasant or uncomfortable to broach. Well, actually, we use them to avoid talking about unpleasant and uncomfortable subjects. In my career, I’ve written about death, money, sex and all kinds of personal development. I’ve become comfortable speaking plainly. To do otherwise is a disservice to […]
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Do fiction and nonfiction writing have anything in common? After all, their goals are fundamentally different. One wants to entertain, the other one mainly educates. But take a look at Hunter S. Thompson’s work and you will know better. Thompson was a master at crafting tight, compelling fiction, and he used these very same fiction […]
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Zoomers struggle to imagine the world before smartphones and the Internet. And Kathy Torrence, 52, learned that her son, 21, is no different. Recently, he texted Kathy, asking, “How did any of college work before email?” So she decided to teach him about those ancient times. The conversation they had hilariously highlighted the differences between […]
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1. Read as many different types of books as possible. Read in a wide range of genres. Read classics and modern books on bestseller lists. Read craft books and autobiographies, too. Read everything you can get your hands on. Don’t feel like the time you spend reading is a waste because it’s part of the […]
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